Norge Part II: Gorges

Dropping into a locked in gorge is a special experience, and one of the unique elements of whitewater kayaking. There are few other sports that present the opportunity to explore the depths of places rarely seen and touched by other human beings. These special places often require intense committment, offering some of the most challanging whitewater experiences, both physically and mentally, for a boater.

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to explore two wonderful gorges, with very different characters during our adventures in Norway.

The Frya Gorge: Several gorges with fun rapids, and a chance to get rowdy at the end.


The hike down to the gorge.

The Frya is a smaller creek flowing out of Lake Furusjøen and into the Lagen River. Relatively unknown, and often overlooked, the Frya Gorge is a pearl of the Sjoa + CO region. We were very fortunate to get on this one at good water levels thanks to some rain the few days before.

The Frya begins as a boulder strewn creek with some mellow class III rapids before digging its way into several deep gorges containing a variety of coninuous boulder garden style rapids with fun boofs and interesting lines. However, the nature of the Frya remains relatively tame, with no rapids harder than class IV+.

But this is what made the Frya so enjoyable. The whitewater was fun, but because it did not demand your complete and undevided attention at all times, we were free to lean back and simply enjoy the sights and sounds of such a remote and unspoiled piece of river. In places, the Frya is squeezed down to less than 2 metres, while the gorge walls, covered in places with yellow moss, arch in overhead. It was very peaceful to be able to just sit there in a clear pool and take it all in.


The clear water and overhanging walls of the Frya Gorge

It was in the depths of the Frya that Tyler related to us a well known Norwegian fairy tale. Norwegian children are told that the hanging lichen growing on the pine trees, which resembles stringy geen hair, is in fact the hair left from the arms of trolls roaming the forests. I personally like the fairy tale explanation better than the text book one!

Once the gorges come to an end, the Frya opens up momentarily before spilling into a final spectacular gorge. The upper section is unrunnable, but we were able to walk the rim of the gorge, and scramble down and put back in just above the exit drop of this last gorge, and fire up the awesome double drop. The first drop is a 10-12 footer that falls into a boiling pool in a tight mini gorge, which is then quickly followed by a 8-10 footer out of the gorge and into the pool below. This was by far one of the coolest drops of the whole trip!


Justin on the lead in to the last drop.


Logan launching off the first drop.

The Finna: A long, tight gorge with steep drops

The Finna has a very different character than the Frya. A bigger river, the Finna has some bigger rapids, some of which are must run, in a very committing gorge. Overall, the Finna felt alot like Vallecito in SW Colorado, except longer at 9 km's (most of which is gorged in) and with slightly smaller rapids than Vallecito, mostly in the class IV+ to V- range.


The Finna put-in drop on the Skjerva. The Skjerva joins the Finna about a 1/2 mile below here.

The put in for the Finna is actually on the Lower Skjerva, a steep lower volume creek that joins the Finna after a fun 1/2 mile of so, and offers a good warmup for the river below. Once the Skjerva joins the Finna, the flow doubles and it is not long before the Finna enters its gorge.

However, before even getting to the gorge, we ran into trouble. Underestimating the speed and power of the river, Ben found himself face to face with a nasty undercut, and was forced to swim after being uncerimoniously shoved underneath. Luckily, we were able to corral him, and his gear shortly below and hit the restart button.

Right below where Ben swam is where the Finna takes a sharp right, and drops into the first major rapid at the entrance to the gorge. Once through this rapid, the walls rose sharply up from the river, and we were locked in.


Chris going deep pn the entrance rapid to the gorge.

The rapids began coming in quick succesion. Most of the rapids consisted of technical moves through big holes and pour overs. I was difinitely impressed by the power of the water through the drops, which were willing and able to spank the slighly offline boater. Despite the power of the rapids, they were relatively forgiving and had good recovery pools.


Tyler & Tyson lowering the boats on the only portage in the Finna Gorge

Though the gorge was locked in, it was possible, although difficult to scout the majority of the rapids, and it was awesome having Tyler and Logan to route us through the countless horizon lines, saving us from having to check them out ourseleves. Looking back, many of the rapids are a blur, though the two that stick in my mind are the must run and the very last rapid.


Looking above as Tyson gets ready for the boof on the must run.

The must run was a great rapid, consisting of a relatively straight forward entrance followed by a hard ferry to the right, and over an eight foot boof. I was up first, caught the eddy on river left, and then started my ferry to river right, and the boof. However, I miscalculated my ferry and got pushed into the flow against the left wall and melted into the boil/hole below. Knowing that the line went, I just waited to pop up and deal. Luckily, the boil/hole spit me out into the deep pool below and I rolled up, and proceeded to watch the rest of the crew come through. Half of the boys made the boof, and half didn't, making me feel a bit better about my botched line.


Ben missing the boof line on the must run....


...and catching a bit of a tooling











Justin, nailing the boof line

The next rapid of note for me was the very last one. Looking down at the horizon line, all we could see was a mess of white, and an ominous bend below where the gorge bottled down even tighter. I should note that as the gorge goes on, it just keeps getting deeper and tighter, and at this point the needle on my fun meter was definitely starting to get close to the red zone. I was still having fun, and was loving being able to route through the rowdy rapids on verbals. But the tight gorge added to the pucker factor, and I was beginning to feel like I was ready to enjoy a cold beer on the downstream side of the gorge.

So, dropping in behind Tyler, we crashed our way through the rapid, and towards the ominous bend. As we came through the bottom of the rapid, Tyler turned around and, probably seeing that my eyes were as big as saucers, yelled to me, "We're Done!" The ominous bend turned out to contain the tightest portion of the gorge, where the Finna is squished between dead vertical walls to less than 3 metres wide. However, there was nothing in there except for a nice current and a good acoustic reveration of our hoots, hollars, and cheers!



The quality of whitewater in Norway is simply amazing, and in our whole trip we paddled nothing but amazing whitewater on spectacular rivers and creeks, making it hard to pick a favorite. But if I had to, the Finna would definitely take the crown, and reflecting back, I would place it in the top 5 favorite rivers list.

Stay tuned for the third and final installment of Gravity Sessions trip to Norway: Slides and Waterfalls!

The Box

Last week Joe, Alex and myself left Denver to drive 9 hours up to the Clark’s Fork Box just outside of Yellowstone National Park. We met up with Barry and Orion from Bozeman for this two day, 24 mile mission through this 1200' walled granite gorge. We rolled into camp at 3am, it would have been much later had the Monatana boys not left some nudy pics as markers to guide us in. This was a nice welcome and made pitching a tent this late at night a bit easier.
We started off with the short Honeymoon section, this provided us with a much needed warm up for what was to come. The first portage came right after the Honeymoon take out, the Green Monster, and thus began our 4 mile flat water paddle to the Anklebreaker portage. The flatwater was simply amazing, nobody was in a rush to get downstream, we were all just taking in the scenery and watching the canyon walls rise the further we ventured. The put in below our first portage:



Our first day lasted about 11 hours, including our hike up to the canyon rim where camp was set up. You really don’t grasp how remote and committing this run is until you enter the box section with your first of I think six portages. To me the scariest part of this wilderness adventure was hiking these portages. Most of what we were walking on was loose sharp rock on a steep pitch. It was very easy to loose your footing and take a long tumble down these sheer and elevated mank piles, potentially loosing your gear or worse yet breaking a limb. I had one close call where I lost my footing and dropped my boat and paddle over a 20 foot ledge, barely keeping myself from junking over. Luckily they landed in a pool of rocks down below where I could recover them. A look back at the ankle breaker portage:



Our first rapid was Double Suck, Barry showing us the boof line off the ledge:



Next up we had Deep 6, named for how long it tends to keep you under before ejecting you. Alex and Joe having clean lines down the left:





Things started to really drop at this point, bringing us to Balls to the Wall. This is a sieved out steep rapid with a manadatory run out. Orion finishing off the upper section:



Our last big rapid for day 1 was Snolieguster, this has a tricky lead in to a river wide hole, followed by a perfect 8 foot boof. Here is the hole:



Followed by the boof:



We decided to try a different route up to the rim, something a little more direct to where we were camping. A look back at ball buster portage and the start of our hike out:



Little did we know that we would be free climbing a 30 foot 5.8 section with loose rock and moss, for sure the most sketch part of the day. This is what we climbed in the dusk:



Once past that obstacle, we had to navigate through a mosquito and grizzley infested marsh to find camp. A fitting end to an epic day for most of us. Two unlucky fellas still had to run a 3 hour shuttle (which actually took them 5 because they were so blazed.)



Day 2 started off with something underworld, I think it was called Chauncey's Underworld. Here is Barry blasting through the meat:



Dillworth, one of the most continuous rapids of our 24 mile adventure was up next, then the picturesque Calendar Falls:



After Calender Falls we took a lunch break on one of the many black sandy beaches along the way. The very next rapid we found this mangled kayak, apparently from the group that was in the weekend before us at really high water. It looked as if a hand grenade had gone off in the stern of the boat:



The next rapid was Deliberation Corner, the most ominous and technical drop of the run. The river seems to really constrict here providing ample gradient, with the walls feeling like they were closing in over you. We all decided to shoulder the boats and walk down to the must run boof over a sticky hole. Joe nailing the 10 footer:



Right around the corner was the Gates of Mordor, Alex dropping in:



The run out leads into Dave's Chasm, the canyon narrows to about 20 feet in width:



The last major drop of the Box is the must run Leap of Faith, this right below the Sunlight Strainer portage, or as I like to call it the F'ing Joe portage. Here is a shot of Orion dropping out:



Looking back up at Leap, breathing a lot easier knowing that we only have the class IV run out to go:



The shuttle ride back provided a picture perfect end to our journey:



Excited to be out of the shuttle vehicle:



The crew:



I am already missing those blistering portages I did in my dry suit, it really encompassed what expedition kayaking is all about. You put an exceeding amount of effort getting into the canyon , then your rewarded with some of the best V whitewater in the States with the colossal feeling of accomplishment on your paddle out.
Huge thanks to Barry for taking us 4 newbies down, we were very fortunate to have such a great guide. Thanks also to Cutch and Evan for the great description in the Whitewater of the Southern Rockies.

Norge: Part I, The Big Ones

Words by Chris Morrison, pics by Luke Pennington, Ben Copithorn, and Chris Morrison

The first thing I noticed about the rivers in Norway is that they are BIG!



I was surprised when I arrived in Norway at how lush the country is. Scattered throughout the countryside are beautiful farms, whose green fields stretch from the banks of the rivers up the steep mountainsides. And flowing through these wide valleys are BIG, beautiful rivers. The view from Mariann Saether's farmhouse down the Otta River valley reminds me of looking at a masterful work of art; the epitome of perfection. It IS the view I conjure up when I think of what a river should look like. Leave it to mother nature to craft such a beautiful scene. Complimenting the beauty of the rivers and valleys are the farmhouses themselves. Crafted of mighty timbres and topped with grass and slate roofs. Amazingly, many of these farmhouses, including Mariann's are centuries old, dating back to before the United States was first colonized.


One of the farmhouses on Mariann's farm, which dates back to 1608.


Another one of the farmhouses on Mariann's farm. This is the guesthouse where we stayed on our trip. The house was built in 1608, and is rumored to be haunted! We left the bunkhouse door opened at night for the cool breeze, but didn't hear anything from John's ghost.

The crew consisted of Tyson T, Jason S, Ben C, Luke P, Justin M and myself, C Mo. We came to Norway upon the recommendation of some Germans that we met last year. After much searching and attempts at planning an international kayaking trip for 6 people, we stumbled across Mariann Saether and Tyler Curtis's Norway Daze. To put it simply, they made things VERY easy for six people looking to travel to the land of the midnight sun and make the most out of limited time. Tyler & Mariann's first hand knowledge of Norway ensured that we had quality paddling everyday; and their first class accomadations and amazing hospitality made sure we were uber fat and happy for the whole experience.


The crew ready to get after it, Luke is showing us some of his cheerleading moves from back in the day.

As I've mentioned several times already, the rivers in Norway are BIG. To paraphrase from Olaf Obsommer and Jens Klatts' excellent Norway: The Whitewater Guide, there is one difference between the rivers in Norway compared to just about anywhere else:, "everything is bigger, everything is higher and everything has more volume." Upon reading this, I thought, it can't be THAT big a difference. Well, I was wrong...

The Big Ones:
The Sjoa River: Asengjuvet, Playrun and Amot gorge. Big waves, big holes, and a few beatdowns!

The Sjoa River was the our first foray into the "bigger" rivers of Norway. The Sjoa drains out of the Jotunheim Mountains, some of the highest in Norway, and carves down into a deep canyon, alternating between steep gorges, open farmland and wooded valleys.

Putting onto the Asengjuvet section of the Sjoa, the sun was shining, and we were all stoked for some big water action. The river was running on the high side, I'd estimate about 3,500 cfs. But it was only class IV, right..

Upon putting on, the Sjoa bends into the deepening canyon for several miles providing ample warm up before coming to the highlight of the run : "The Gut." The Gut consists of a 300-400 meter long rapid and necessitates threading several large holes, a few of which, we were informed, were to be avoided at all costs. Despite Mariann & Tyler's verbal instruction, and strong warning about the holes, Ben decided that he would plug one,...for fun. After a thourough tooling, several loops, and a few reverse un-intendo's he was uncerimoniously spit out. While I got the pleasure of looking upstream to see the conclusion of his tooling, I turned downstream just before Tyler decided to plug the monster. Apparently, he also had seen only the last of Ben's surf, and figured the hole would just spit him out. As Ben found out, this was not the case, and our guide proceeded to get a little beat down of his own.

Too shortly, the Gut ends, and the gorge opens up, marking the end of the Asengjuvet section, and the beginning of the Sjoa's playrun. The Sjoa playrun is just that, another beautiful section of river with some fun play features. More noticable for me, however, was the amazing gorge that the Sjoa carves through in this section. A non-threatening beauty, the waters of the Sjoa are free to course through at a liesurely pace allowing the passer to enjoy the beauty with no threat of getting swallowed.

While we floated through the casual playrun section, Mariann and Tyler jumped out in order to run shuttle for the Amot Gorge, the lowest section of the Sjoa before it joins with the Lagen. I should mention here that besides our crew, Mariann and Tyler, Logan Grayling, a friend and fellow Canadian to Tyler was staying with Mariann and Tyler durig our trip, and paddled with us almost everyday. Aside from being a seriously ripping kayaker at the tender age of 20, Logan is a serious smart ass. But a smart ass in a good way,...like your smart ass best friend from college. So while taking a breather at the take out for the Playrun, Logan mentioned to Ben and I that it would be best to stay in our boat through Amot,....OR we would die. (I should also mention here that despite Logan's generally sarcastic flavor, he was serious)

Now I had no idea what lay in store downstream in the Amot gorge. But the Gut had been big and pushy, the weather had turned cool and rainy, and we had already paddled 20k....I was beginning to have serious reservations about Amot. I didn't mention Logan's comment to anyone else during the several K's before the gorge began, as I didn't want the thought eating away at everyone else. But Ben and I discussed jumping out prior to the gorge. The consequences of death for swimming just didn't seem too appealing at this point.

However, as we approached the regular put in for Amot, Tyler and Mariann peeled out into the water from river left and caught an eddy river right. We were in now...
We got verbals about the immediate rapids, and peeled out. I was super nervous, as big water is not my specialty, and I had no idea what to expect except a locked in gorge, that squeezed the almost 3,500 cfs down to 10 metres in spots. Not to mention the possibility of death.

When we rounded the first corner and entered the first rapid of Amot, my anxiety eased substantially as we were faced with big waves, powerful reactionaries and hole dodging goodness. We blasted our way down into the gorge until eddying out above the corridor. I vividly remember sitting in the boiling eddy, looking over the horizon line downstream and seeing nothing but white, and hearing Tyler say, "what you see, is what you get." The rapid below was a fun mess as you drop into a huge reactionary coming off the right bank, dodge a few holes and then shoot through the narrow constriction at the end of the corridor.

Once through the corridor, we regrouped in the eddy above the exit rapid to Amot. Once again, we found ourselves in a boiling eddy, looking downstream at yet another large white monstrosity, which once again required hurling ourselves downstream through the burl, dodging holes and squirly eddy lines...and then, it was done!

The Amot, though spicy with higher water turned out to be one of my favorite runs in Norway, and a good introduction to the higher volume gems that dot the country. Thank goodness I didn't pull out early!

The Lagen: Rosten Section: Big, Steep Rapids in a Spooky Gorge

The Lagen begins in the lake Lesjaskogvsvatnet, and flows south towards the town of Otta. For most of its journey, it meanders through lush farmlands. But before the Lagen joins the Otta, it digs down into a deep gorge, peppered with steep rapids. With the exception of a few rapids, the Lagen is mostly read and run class IV. And while the run is mostly roadside, the gorge feels far from civilization, and has a rather "spooky" feel to it. Maybe its the size of the rapids in a tight gorge, or the undercut walls or just being in a gorge with that much water. Whatever it is, the gorge is spooky.

The sun was shinning bright, and the water was yet again on the high side. We put on and negotiated the put-in rapid without incident and began making our way down into the gorge. The highlight of the run is definitely the triple combination which comes up fairly quickly into the run. Dropping about 20 feet, the triple combo consists of a straightforward ledge drop, which leads into a slide that bends 90 degrees to the left, slams into a big reactionary, and then charges another 90 degrees to the left and crashes through two BIG holes, the second of which is an ass beater. Scouting from river left, it was clear that there were two options: the chicken run, far left down the slide avoiding the reactionary and the two big holes, or straight through the reactionary and into the maw.

After contemplating for a minute, Tyson smiled at us and said, "I'll go for the cowboy line." So we set up for safety, and watched the big water Idaho boy show us how its done.













After watching Tyson style the line, we all decided to go with the hero line, and made it though,...with varying degrees of success.


Jason, coming through the bottom

Once again, Ben caught the best hole ride of the day, getting worked over pretty well in the bottom hole. To his credit, he rode it out, hootin like a cowboy the whole time. Wish I had a picture of him as he bounced like a cork in the hole!!

Directly below the triple combo lays the Rosten waterfall. At lower levels, this is a sick 12 footer, but at higher levels, as it was on this day, the base of the waterfall has a nasty towback, deserving a walk.


The falls. Hard to see how big the towback in this pic is, but you can be sure that a clean line would have been tough to hit, and even though it was hard to walk away from, a beating in this hole could be very ugly.

After scrambling around the portage, we put back in and continued our way down the tight gorge. The last major rapid was a fun right to left move down a ramp, through a hole, and back out the end of the gorge.

The Sjoa: Ridderspranget Run

The Ridderspranget run is the uppermost section of the Sjoa, and yet another big volume gem. The Ridderspranget also has one of the best histories of any river I've ever paddled.

Directly above the put in for the Ridderspranget, the entire volume of the Sjoa is constricted between gorge walls to less than a metre. Legend has it that a young knight stole the bride of another knight from a neighboring land. While fleeing from his pursuers, the knight leapt the Sjoa gorge on horseback, escaping his pursuers.

Not as daring as the young knight, we declined the jump, and opted for the seal launch into the turquoise water exiting the gorge.


Justin, sliding into the Riddenspranget

After everyone was in the water, Tyler gave us the beta for the first drop, which lies directly around the corner. Once coming around the sweeping left bend, you just had to drive right, break the lateral coming off the right wall, and maintain your right momentum to avoid the hole at the bottom. Easy enough, right?

I peeled out after Luke, came around the corner, and came face to face with a much larger lateral than I had expected, barely made it through, and looked downstream towards the monster hole. I could see the hole had a nice green tongue on the left side, but I was already committed to the right line. I could also see that Luke was stuck in the hole. All I could think was that I did not want to be in that hole, especially with Luke. I continued to drive right, and managed to break through the strong towback, and escape its clutches.

Pulling into the river right eddy below the hole, I looked back upstream to see Luke was still being throttled. I had enough time, as did several others in the crew, to sit in the eddy, laugh at the series of loops, windowshades, and various other sweet rodeo moves that Luke was throwing down in his creek boat. Then after his ride seemed to be lasting way longer than he would be able to hold out, I had time to pull up to the top of the eddy, jump out of my boat, get my bag out, and watch as Luke pulled one final BIG loop, and flush outta the hole. Fortunately, the hole was not backed up by any immediate rapids, and we all had time to collect ourselves and recount what was by far the best ride of the trip. Yet another one that I wish I had a picture of!

The next rapid on the Riddenspranget is by far the highlight. A sweet 12 footer.

Mariann on one of her favorite backyard runs


Tyson going deep

After the 12 footer, the Sjoa meanders through beautiful wooded scenery, before the mandatory portage. This monster is huge, with several big holes in the lead in and culminating in a 30 foot falls. With maybe 500 cfs, the falls and preceeding lead in looks like it would go, but with the 2,500 - 3,000 cfs careening over the lip, the hole and horendous recirculating eddy lines at the base of the falls made it look, well, absolutely horrendous. After staring with dropped jaws for several minutes, we continued our portage, entering into the fast moving gorge and class IV rapids below the big falls.

The next rapid was another monster. A triple drop, which at more normal flows is regularly run, was ferocious. Three big holes, replete with undercuts, and definite potential for disaster. This one, especially at with high water, was an easy walk for all in the group.

The final drop of the day was yet another big'n. Another triple drop. The first two were good to go, and while the last drop had clean lines on both the right and left, a monster pour over lurked in the middle. The 8 foot pourover looked like it dug its way to China, and didn't come back. Tyler decided to go first, and in typical Tyler style made it look good. Logan was next and pulled off an even nicer line. Jason was inspired and pulled off the best line of the day, barely getting his head wet. The rest of the group, with the exception of Mariann decided for the dry line. Mariann buttered up the top drop, and got flipped in the second. Making a quick roll, she was nonetheless far down the pool towards the lip of the third drop when she rolled up. Showing serious grace under pressure, Mariann went with the right line, ferrying directly above the lip of the pourover in the center, charged right, and made it to the safety of the right side of the drop.


Luke and Tyson taking a look at the entrance to the bottom drop


Tyler, entering the left line on the third drop

Though Norway runs in general have more water than a bunch of southern Rocky Mountain paddlers are used to, these three sections felt bigger than the rest of the runs we ran on our journey through Norway. But despite the intimidating nature of some of the big gorges with lots of water, we found the rapids to be relatively forgiving and some of the best of the trip.

Stay tuned for part II of the Norway extravaganza: Slides and Waterfalls are cool...